New research has struck a blow for “real” shoelaces in the battle against elastic laces.

The report, published in the Journal of Sports Sciences, looked at different lacing patterns in sports shoes, and found that a firm “foot-to-shoe coupling” (FTSC) could be beneficial to athletes and less sporty folk alike.

It’s not just professional athletes who will benefit from the security of Greepers laces

The research went on to say: “A firm foot-to-shoe coupling… leads to a more effective use of running shoe features and is likely to reduce the risk of lower limb injury.”

Researchers at Sheffield University are investigating the benefits of running performance using real laces, and have uncovered some promising findings that should make all runners – and non-runners alike – think about how they lace their shoes.

Why choose real shoelaces?

The right shoes – and laces – can make a world of difference to runners. A firm FTSC helps stop excessive movement of the foot and lower leg, reducing the risk of injury by eliminating unnecessary bends, pulls and twists.

Think about how your foot moves when you plant it on the ground. Do you want it firmly anchored, or able to stretch on elastic? Opinions vary among professional athletes and occupational therapists alike, and sometimes it’s a matter of personal taste and preference.

Silver winning Jacqui Allen at the ITU Cross Triathlon World Championships.Greeper laces are used by top athletes.

But, with research indicating that injuries could be reduced with less stretchy laces, the debate is sure to intensify.

And, unlike elastic laces that allow extra movement of the foot as you pound the pavements, “real” shoelaces such as Greepers provide minimal movement, aiming to lessen the impact of every step.

Greeper review in Triathon Magazine

Security with every step

It’s not just athletes who will find a benefit in having shoelaces that are firmly attached. It’s easy to see how disabled athletes, people with joint pain or bone weakness and those of us with reduced mobility need security and stability with every single step.

Greepers provide a simple and accessible solution. Once they’re tied once, you don’t need to tie them again – meaning they can be loosened and tightened but not undone. If you find it a pain to reach down and tie shoelaces, or need a shoelacing solution for someone who needs to know they won’t have to keep tying and untying at school, these sturdy and stylish laces offer the perfect package.

A personal guide to accessing mental health services

Sometimes it feels like accessing mental health services is like trying to please Goldilocks. Sometimes you’re too unwell; sometimes you’re not unwell enough. You must jump through hoops to prove you are as badly in need of help as you say you are; but if you’re well enough to jump through them, are you really in need of help? Here’s a short guide on how to navigate that tricky dilemma, and access the help to which you’re entitled.

You don’t always have to go to the waiting room to get help with mental health

The dilemma

It’s the dilemma that many of us have faced – me included. The fluctuating nature of many mental health conditions means that when you’re at your lowest, it’s hard to perform even basic tasks, let alone face the outside world. To give an example: even leaving the house or communicating by telephone can be beyond the capabilities of someone who is undergoing a crisis. I’ve been there, sitting by the phone, looking at it in my hand, for hours, unable to press the buttons, or dialling and then feeling sick straight away, then waiting until it rings and hanging up. How can you even begin to help yourself when simply reaching out is so hard in the first place?

It might sound straightforward, then, to ride out the worst parts of a mental health crisis, then seek help when you’re feeling better. But it’s not that simple, for several reasons. You might not want to think about mental health, let alone talk about times when you’ve been at your worst, when things are finally coming together. You may hope that it was a temporary blip that has been overcome.

But it gets worse. Attempt to seek help for a long-term problem when you’re feeling well, and some people will tell you that they aren’t fully understood by health professionals, up to and including GPs and mental health professionals. If you’ve got back to the part where you’ve managed to leave the house, go to work and even book an appointment, everything’s all right again, isn’t it?

Isn’t it?

Well, no. It isn’t. But the irony is painful: you can only be in a place where you’re able to discuss your symptoms at the very point at which they are least visible and least present. To the outside world, you are presenting the face you would like them to see: they are not seeing you in a crisis, because the person you are in a crisis is one who might hide away and not even be able to speak to them at all.

Make a plan

It might seem counterintuitive to get help when you feel least symptomatic, but it can be a good idea. You can be lucid enough to make sense of what has been happening. Additionally, you are in a place where you’re most able to make use of your access to the outside world. And you’re also capable of talking and listening without being as highly stressed by these activities as you might otherwise be.

You might think that, when you’re well, it’s exactly the wrong time to make a plan about what to do when things get worse – after all, you hope against hope that they aren’t. But… suppose they do. You’ll thank yourself for having done that hard work when you were able to. So get a plan in place. Who will you speak to? How will you find help? Do you have everything to hand, in a place where you can find it? Do it, if you can. Just in case. It’s always just in case. A good place to start is the Rethink website, which has plenty of links and information. If it’s a crisis, you can speak to the Samaritans in person, on the phone or via email.

Write it down

That said, it might not be easy to access the rawness of the highs and lows you are able to experience at other times, so how can you get across how they feel? One way, if you can, and if you feel safe enough to do so, is to write it down. There’s something about putting feelings into words that touches a different part of yourself to just talking. It makes you think a little more deeply; at the very least you have to confront the reality of what happens, or happened. As I’ve alluded to, that is only something that should be done if you feel ready, but if you do, do it.

It might seem artificial to “perform” reading from a series of notes when you finally get in a room with someone, or on a telephone. But a script or a set of bullet points can help. There’s a chance that the sheer emotion of finally saying what you’ve been dying to say might make you trip over and forget your words. For some of us, we end up sounding like we’re speaking so slowly that there’s a lifetime between every single syllable. But those moments will pass. Someone who will help you will let the words come out.

Jump through those hoops

Sometimes it feels like there’s no help. That dread of the phone call to the GP receptionist, who tells you there’s no appointments until next month if it isn’t “urgent”, might lead you to put it off. But don’t put it off. And you might not even have to deal with the usual gatekeepers.

Now, this doesn’t apply everywhere, and it’s very much a postcode lottery, but in some enlightened parts of the country you can access mental health help by self-referring – you can even do it by email or via a website, if you find the telephone a problem. I was amazed to find out I could do it where I live. It’s not as well known as perhaps it should be, but you can do it. Find out if your area offers a system where you can self-refer, and if it does, take advantage of that. You’ll be dealing with people who understand the process of accessing mental health services.

You will probably have to go through a consultation lasting 45-50 minutes, but that will give you the chance to explain how you feel and put across the issues you’re facing. You might find you have to jump through more hoops – for example, go through a six-week course of cognitive behavioural therapy before you’re considered for anything else – but the good news is, you’re on the path. Once you’re on it, stay on it. And even if one course of therapy ends, you can self refer again as soon as you want. It’s really in your control, which might be a huge relief.

Remember: you’re entitled to help

Perhaps the most important thing to remember if you can, no matter what your feelings are about yourself, is this: you are entitled to get help if you need it. You’re not getting in the way. You’re not taking someone else’s place. You’re not so insignificant that no one can help. You’re not a problem that can’t be solved. You’re not so insignificant, or small, or easily forgotten. There is a way for you to be heard, and be listened to, and helped. However much it might seem that the system is set up to reject you, you are entitled to help. So if you need it, get it. And if you aren’t happy with the first attempt, try again: you’re entitled to a second opinion too.

Do Fidget Spinners help Children Learn?

You see them everywhere, a colourful blur right across the country, wherever there are children. Where once it was marbles or loom bands or bottle flips, the fidget spinner has become the craze of 2017. But how did this toy, designed to help children who have issues with concentrating, become the go-to gadget of our times? And have we lost sight of what they’re really meant to be used for?

The classroom can be a daunting experience for some of us. A number of conditions, including Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), attachment behaviour disorder (ABD), and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), mean that it’s harder to be “ready to learn” than your peers.

While most children (and adults) find it possible, if not always desirable, to sit in silence and focus on one other person talking, for others it’s more of a challenge. The sensory deprivation can leave some of us feeling agitated, on edge, with nervous energy that’s hard to keep in check. In a classroom environment this can manifest itself in all kinds of (for the educator) unwanted behaviour which are (for the learner) an aid to concentration. From calling out and interrupting to flipping rulers on desks or folding paper, educators find that learners’ self-therapy can be distracting and take away from the flow of a lesson. So is there another way of coping?

The theory of fidget toys is simple: if you have difficulty concentrating, it gives you something to occupy your senses. The pleasant whirr of the spinner as its outer spokes whirl around the central hub creates a light vibration. Watching the spokes slowly come to a halt – they run on ceramic or steel bearings – is a strangely satisfying experience, as it takes just that little bit longer than your brain expects.

In a classroom environment it can be easy for an educator to mistake this behaviour for disruption, whereas it is in fact an expression of unfocused energy or repetitive behaviour that the child finds useful in order to concentrate and be ready to learn, particular when around others. While some children with special educational needs find it more stressful to be in a noisy classroom, others find the silent “teacher talk, you listen” sections of a lesson to be the most challenging.

Fidget toys provide an outlet for the energy these learners – adults as well as children – need to dissipate, in such a way as to be a minimal distraction for those around them, and teachers too. It allows a child to express their needs and be as stress-free as possible, without hindering the learning of others.

Whether that means they are more effective than what professionals have been using for years is up for debate. And whether it’s more helpful to have fidget toys to be used in the classroom, rather than during specially timetabled sensory breaks, is another issue. But there’s no debating how popular these toys have become among all kinds of children – and their purpose has changed, from their original mission to all-round craze and, as we see them now, a phenomenon.

Now you can find not just three-pronged spinners but two and four-pronged specimins, glittering colours, even with LEDs to sparkle underneath a desk or in a dim room. And so have come the tricks that have elevated these toys from their purpose to something entirely different: as the hula hoop of our times. With that popularity has come cheap imitation, of course, leading to German authorities seizing millions of potentially lethal spinners and planning to crush them.

The prevalence of spinners has led to some schools banning them outright, and others making them disappear from the classroom, allowed during breaktimes. This policy, while understandable, might be a little hasty, since the benefits of these toys are not yet fully understood. As an educator, I have seen them being used effectively already with children who have additional learning needs, to give them something to keep their hands busy and their minds occupied during teacher input. So while it might be irritating to see that blur out of the corner of our eyes, it might be best to consider they really might have a positive value to learning after all.